ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, January 15, 1997 TAG: 9701150079
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: EREZ CROSSING, ISRAEL
SOURCE: Associated Press
Israel and the Palestinians signed a tortuously negotiated agreement today on Israel's long-delayed pullout from Hebron and parts of the West Bank, ending a dangerous impasse in Middle East peacemaking but still leaving key questions unanswered.
After a post-midnight summit, U.S. envoy Dennis Ross - who had pushed for the accord in four months of often-frustrating negotiations - announced that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat had finally closed the deal in a last 90-minute session.
The agreement ``brings us another step closer to a lasting, secure Middle East peace,'' President Clinton said in Washington. ``Once again, the forces of peace have prevailed over a history of division.''
Israeli chief negotiator Dan Shomron and his Palestinian counterpart Saeb Erekat signed the pact behind closed doors at the summit, held on the Israel-Gaza border. Netanyahu and Arafat emerged afterward to shake hands before the cameras but did not speak.
Ross said the agreement was ``fully consistent'' with the previous Israel-Palestinian agreement from 1995, but the part dealing with Hebron was ``more detailed.''
Both sides also signed what they called a ``note for the record'' dealing with further West Bank pullouts and other issues.
``Taken together, these two documents represent a very important building block in terms of developing relations between the two sides and peace in the Middle East as a whole,'' Ross said.
Authorities did not immediately release details of the accord, but according to previous press reports and accounts from officials, Israel is to give the Palestinians control of 80percent of the Biblical city of Hebron within days. Israel also agreed to roll back its presence in the West Bank in three stages - beginning in six weeks and ending in August 1998.
It is the first concrete step in the peace process since Netanyahu's hard-line government took office in June, pledging to slow down the handover of land to the Palestinians. Tensions between the two sides have risen sharply as the stalemate in their relations lengthened. In September, Palestinian frustration sparked clashes with Israel in which 79 people died.
But today's agreement may set the stage for future conflict by leaving as many questions as it answers - most notably the scope of the planned Israeli withdrawals. The Palestinians hope to gain control of most of the West Bank, but Netanyahu by some reports plans to cede as little as one-third of the territory, which Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast War.
Netanyahu spokesman Shai Bazak said Netanyahu would take the deal later today to his Cabinet - where about half the ministers have said they are against it or undecided. Arafat is expected to encounter less opposition when he brings the accord before his own Cabinet.
The accord is also to be brought to the Israeli Knesset, where it is expected to pass by a large majority with the support of the opposition.
Netanyahu's most ardent past supporters - the Jewish settlers of the West Bank and Gaza - were astounded by his decision to commit to pulling out of not only Hebron but parts of the West Bank as well.
``Netanyahu is on the verge of making a pact with the devil,'' David Wilder, a spokesman for the 500 Jewish settlers who live amid 130,000 Palestinians in Hebron, said Tuesday.
``If he goes through with this, he will place all of our lives in severe jeopardy.''
LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (left)by CNBshakes hands with Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat at a
meeting at Erez. color.